


Press Night Blues

by rancheel



Series: When You Depart From Me Sorrow Abides, and Happiness Takes His Leave [9]
Category: British Actor RPF, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Anxious Tom, Betrayal!Tom, Daredevil (TV) Spoilers, F/M, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, Press and Tabloids, Returning Home, Texting, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Wedding Planning (Mentioned)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 17:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18103385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rancheel/pseuds/rancheel
Summary: Noelle's finally recovering from her recent voice loss and decided to stay up and wait for Tom to get home from his Press Night after party with the cast of Betrayal.





	Press Night Blues

Noelle was scrolling on Twitter, her phone in one hand while her opposite held on firmly to a mug that held some warm tea for her throat.

Bobby was asleep and nuzzled up against Noelle’s warm thigh as her phone vibrated with a text.

She was quick to carefully place the mug down on the small coaster that was on the coffee table without waking up Bobby as she tapped on the message bubble that had popped up, seeing Tom’s contact come onto the screen followed by a new message that eased her anxiety for him.

**_Critics loved it! xx_ **

Noelle felt the world practically fall off her shoulders the second she read that text.

She recalled earlier that day when they were talking over breakfast about how anxious he was for the show tonight since the beginning of the week.

Thankfully, the anxiety Tom had didn’t show too much when he was on stage, since he’s saying the critics loved it. And they really should.

If Noelle were a critic, she’d give it as many stars as she could. Sadly, it’s only five, but she would happily give a ten if allowed.

Noelle was quick to type out a reply that consisted mostly of heart emojis before finally typing the words _I’m proud of you!_ With a cute little screen effect that had a heart blow up on iMessage.

She has too much fun when she’s messing around with things in her freetime.

Once she hit send she automatically saw the read receipts pop under the text before the usual three dots in a message bubble floated against the left side of the screen.

Noelle’s hand absentmindedly moved to Bobby’s sleeping form to start running her hands through his soft fur, watching the bubbles move over and over until Tom had finally sent a text back in response.

**_Thank you my love. Shouldn’t you be in bed? Don’t tell me you’re waiting up._ **

Noelle rolled her eyes fondly as she moved her hand from Bobby and back to her phone to type quickly.

**_I am in bed! I’m just in the bed downstairs with Bobby watching some Netflix._ **

**_Bed meaning couch, if you’re wanting to be that specific._ **

Noelle could easily imagine Tom’s face as the read receipts popped under her two messages and the bubble with the dots didn’t pop up right away.

Bobby let out a quiet huff before adjusting himself against Noelle’s thigh, gently placing his head on top of it as she leaned forwards for her tea to take a sip before the throbbing in her throat returned.

Noelle held back a coo as she sipped her tea carefully, adjusting her phone in her hand before moving her thumb to tap on the small camera icon, snapping a photo of Bobby’s sleeping body before sending it to Tom with the caption of _at least he’s asleep!_

She smiled as she saw the read receipts pop under the photo she sent right as the bubbles stopped.

Noelle shifted slowly on the couch after her mug was back on the coaster, finally turning her direction to the TV.

The title card for another episode of Daredevil was playing on the screen before her phone vibrated in her hands once more.

**_I know I can’t force you to get to bed but I’ll be home soon. Don’t miss me too much. I love you._ **

Noelle grinned down at her screen and sent a quick _I love you too!_ back in response before finally locking her phone to pay attention to the episode of Daredevil she was on.

Somewhere midway through the episode, Bobby had woken up before moving off the couch completely before trotting over to his bed that was on the floor near the coffee table. 

“Bobbyyy,” Noelle whined dramatically as she held a hand out over his way. Bobby gave her his infamous head tilt before proceeding to plop down into the bed.

“I love you?” Noelle questioned aloud, leaning forward to grab her mug to sip at her tea once more, hearing a small bark from Bobby before he seemed to fall back asleep.

Noelle just pouted before turning her attention to the screen once more.

She was pushing through another title sequence when she finally heard the doorknob to the front door jiggle around before the sound of the opening door was heard. Noelle just kept her eyes on the screen, not really wanting to move.

She really was starting to get tired.

“Hey,” Tom said quietly after he locked up the front door again, carefully moving to sit next to Noelle on the couch, placing the things he was holding down on the coffee table. “You’re still awake?”

Noelle let out a small hum as the quiet noises of a helicopter played through the TV speakers before laying her head on Tom’s shoulder, hugging a pillow into her chest.

Tom laughed quietly and pressed a kiss to her forehead, catching a glimpse of the TV.

“You watched Daredevil all the way through? _Again?_ ”

“If it makes you feel any better, watched Thor: Ragnarok two times back to back because Bobby and I missed you,” Noelle mumbled as she started to shift her weight to lean into Tom’s side, placing the pillow on the free side of the couch before glancing down his chest to see what he wore to the after party as he cooed affectionately.

“Gucci?”

Tom rose a brow before looking down at his attire.

“Yeah, I dug it out before leaving earlier. Even has a small middle button between buttons-”

Noelle cut Tom off with a sleepy laugh.

“You finally got one of those? But how will your fans get to see your bare chest more than me now?” Noelle teased, the both of them sharing a laugh before she placed her hand on his chest that was exposed due to the few buttons left apart.

“They’ll have to deal with that,” Tom replied, carefully wrapping an arm around Noelle’s shoulders.

“We should get you to bed, you know,” Tom inquired softly as Noelle started to nuzzle her face into his neck. She let out a small hum.

“Probably. Too comfy here, though.”

Tom snorted and ran his free hand through Noelle’s hair gently.

“Is that your way of asking me to carry you to bed now?”

Noelle closed her eyes against his warm skin and barely shrugged.

“Maybe.”

Tom smiled fondly and shook his head a little before he started to get himself up off the couch, despite the quiet whining and tugging Noelle was doing to his suit jacket.

“How do you want me to carry you?” Tom questioned as he moved to take off his suit jacket now, tossing it where he once sat before starting to roll his sleeves up. Noelle tapped her chin dramatically, pretending to think as she fell back against the couch cushions.

“Bridal style? You’ve gotta get the practice in before the wedding anyways,” Noelle teased fondly just as Tom stopped rolling his sleeves, grinning widely before moving closer to the couch.

“Very true, love. Very true. We still need to keep planning, you know.” Tom was quick to slip one arm under Noelle’s legs while the other went to wrap around her middle. Noelle was about to say something until Tom picked her up and held her tightly against his chest.

“You might also want to grab my neck, I’m not too sure how good at this I’ll be-”

“You’ve carried me before, I’m not _that_ heavy!” Noelle exclaimed softly, her arms weaving around his neck quickly with slight worry.

Tom huffed out a laugh before he started to carefully maneuver around Bobby’s occupied bed and make his way to the stairs.

“You’re _extremely_ light, my love, I assure you, but I’ve been out all night, remember,” Tom said, talking almost as if he didn’t have Noelle in his arms as he successfully made his way up the stairs carefully. Noelle let out a small huff and moved to poke one of Tom’s biceps.

“I do, but you have some big guns, you can manage.”

Tom rolled his eyes fondly before he felt Noelle press a kiss to his cheek.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, by the way.”

“Noelle, you don’t have to apologize, it’s okay,” Tom reassured gently, glancing down at her quickly before carefully making it to the second floor of the house, letting out a quiet sigh of relief that the bedroom door was already wide open.

“I know, but just,” Noelle let out a small huff before carefully leaning up to press another kiss to the corner of his lips, “I feel _bad._ Like, I should have been out there supporting you. Not rewatching Loki in a whole black suit. or rewatching Matt Murdock _finally_ beat Fisk.”

Tom turned to side step into their room, letting out another chuckle.

“Dear, I would rather your voice continue to get better than get worse. Zawe and Charlie understood, I sent them your love.”

“It’s jus’ not the same,” Noelle mumbled, trying to press her face into his neck again, only to press her face into Tom’s shoulder and start gently picking at the button that looked like it was trying so hard to keep his shirt together in one piece.

Tom frowned and carefully placed Noelle down onto their bed before moving a hand from her middle to cup her cheek, brushing his thumb over her cheekbone.

Noelle tried not to smile at the sudden contact, but couldn’t help herself. Tom started to smile as he watched, pressing a brief kiss to her lips before standing up straight to start taking his dress shirt off.

Noelle was quick to hide her face into her pillow she grabbed, feeling her cheeks heat up. After her time with Tom and seeing him naked so many times in their relationship, she couldn’t get over him. Or his body. Or his stupid dopey smile he gives her when he’s seen her for the first time in a few hours.

She’s really got it bad. But luckily he’s the one she’s marrying.

Noelle was pulled from her thoughts under the pillow as Tom laughed and called out her name.

“Noelle? What are you doing?”

“Hiding!”

“From what?” Tom asked, starting to pull out the remaining bits of shirt that were tucked into his slacks, watching Noelle roll around slightly on top of the sheets.

“Your attractiveness!” Noelle exclaimed back into the pillow, letting out a loud and dramatic groan. Tom rose a brow.

“Noelle, you’ve seen me like this _many_ times, and you’re.. _hiding?_ ”

Noelle was quick to sit up, still holding the pillow to her face as she sent him a quick thumbs up. Tom let out a fond laugh.

“I love you,” Tom said between laughs, feeling his own face start to heat up considerably before shedding himself of his dress shirt and moving over to the closet.

Yeah. She loved him too.

**Author's Note:**

> I learned the hard way that in London, Press Night is their opening night and everything before Press Night is previews of the show. And also, those photos of Tom were like a smack in the face when I opened Twitter, hence why this happened. 
> 
> I ended this the way I did because if I kept going, it would probably well over 2k, and my body is begging me to stop and go back to bed. I enjoyed my time writing this nonetheless. Back to being a sick bundle of joy for me. Love you xx


End file.
